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ADDRESS 

to the 

Teachers of New York City 

by 

DR. WILLIAM L. ETTINGER 
Superintendent of Schools 



DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

The City of New York 



J&antb of ^hucaltmt 

President 
ARTHUR S. SOMERS 

Vice-President 
FRANK D. WILSEY 

MRS. EMMA L. MURRAY 

ANNING S. PRALL 

MRS. RUTH F. RUSSELL 

GEORGE J. RYAN 

JOSEPH YESKA 



ADDRESS 




to the 




Teachers of New York City 


by 




DR. WILLIAM L. ETTINGER 


f 


Superintendent of Schools ■*/ 




W 




September 20, 1918 





^ 



n; of D # 

DEC 30 «318 



/ would therefore urge that the 
people continue to give generous 
support to their schools of all 
grades, and that the schools 
adjust themselves as wisely as 
possible to the new conditions, 
to the end that no m boy or girl 
shall have less opportunity for 
education because' of the war, 
and that the Nation may be 
strengthened as it can only be 
through the right education of 
all its people. 

Woodrow Wilson 



Wbt ®eacfjer anb tfje 
©ebelopment of Rational Sbeate 

BY William L. Ettinger. Superintendent of Schools 



Fellow Teachers: 

As we begin the arduous work of the 
new school year, I deem it my duty and 
also my privilege to direct your attention 
to educational problems which require, 
for satisfactory solution, your broadest 
vision, your keenest intelligence, and 
your resolute application. 

The present titanic war has made our 
Anglo-Saxon civilization conscious of its 
ideals as contrasted with a Teutonic 
swash buckler "Kultur" which threat- 
ened to impose upon us and our Allies a 
sordid militarism. Democracy, instead 
of being a shibboleth of politicians, has 
become the creed of millions of people of 
different nationalities, in defense of which 



Bebelojpment of i^attonal 3foeate 

nations rather than armies are waging 
a war unto death. Shocking indeed it 
is to realize that the paternalistic govern- 
ment and the resulting superficial prosper- 
ity of the German people, which aroused 
the favorable commendation of many 
sincere students, were but a sinister ex- 
ploitation of the nation in the interests 
of a greedy, ambitious autocracy. We 
spontaneously find a new significance in 
Napoleon's dictum that three-fourths of 
a fact lies in its spiritual value. 

This world war is a conflict of opposing 
ideals, of which the glistening bayonets 
and the rattling machine guns are but the 
material expression. During its progress, 
let us hold to the splendid thought of a 
little French peasant girl who, describing 
the French and German armies facing 
each other across the Marne, wrote that 
although they were so close that a swallow 
with one sweep could wing his way across 



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Bebelopment of J&ational Sbeals 

the shallow stream, yet in terms of truth, 
in terms of decency, in terms of honesty, 
in terms of right and wrong, the two 
armies were as remote from each other 
as are the polar stars. 

As partial compensation for the dread- 
ful carnage and the appalling devastation 
that the war has wrought, there has been 
a spiritual awakening in which the scales 
of ignorance, bigotry and mammon wor- 
ship have dropped from our eyes, leaving 
us with a clearer insight into the funda- 
mentals of individual and of national life. 

As our schools are the nation's most 
potent instrument in the development 
of national ideals, it would be strange 
indeed if this world crisis did not compel 
changes in our conceptions as to the value 
and the function of education as a phase 
of our institutional life. We are called 
upon to scrutinize anew our work in terms 
of our underlying theories, our methods 



Bebetopment of Rational Sbeate 

of instruction, and our discipline, in order 
that through reflection we may acquire 
that freshness of vision, that truthfulness 
of aim, and that steadfastness of purpose 
necessary to insure the salvation of our 
democracy through the proper training 
of our future citizens. 

What is the truth concerning the value 
of the work in which we are engaged? 
Our results are apparently intangible, 
difficult of measurement, and often at 
seeming variance with the immediate 
demands of commerce and industry. But 
if the achievements of ourselves and our 
Allies have demonstrated one fact above 
all others, it is that the moral fibre, the 
morale of the nation, is more vitally 
significant than any degree of material 
prosperity, and, moreover, that its quality 
is the fruitage of a proper educational 
system. Not the last line, but rather the 
first line of defense, is the public school 



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^Development of Jlattonal Iltieals 

system of our land, and it is no exaggera- 
tion to say that the battles of to-morrow 
are being won in the schools of to-day. 
Should not a consideration of such 
facts lend an increased dignity, a deeper 
seriousness, an enhanced value to our 
work as teachers? Should not cynicism, 
negligence, unskillfulness give way to the 
same degree of optimism, resourcefulness, 
and prowess that we expect of Pershing 
and his staff when they lead our men to 
battle? We who are soldiers behind the 
far flung battle-line, and into whose hands 
is entrusted the training of our country's 
most precious heritage, must so saturate 
ourselves with the needs of the vital pre- 
sent and the demands of a promising and 
urgent future that our professional atti- 
tude, our methods of instruction, and our 
means of discipline will be a reflex of our 
matured point of view. 



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Bebelopment of JUational Sbeate 

It is imperative that every teacher with- 
in our system: 

(1) Shall be aggressively patriotic in 
word and deed in upholding the standards 
set by President Wilson, and in furthering 
all war measures which our nation sees 
fit to enforce. 

(2) Shall interpret history so as to reveal 
the enduring Anglo-Saxon principles of 
personal liberty, to which our President 
has given such eloquent expression. 

(3) Shall, through the ideals embodied in 
our literature, and through every-day con- 
tact in the school, emphasize the futility 
of strength divorced from righteousness. 

(4) Shall let the thrilling events of the 
present not only color, but also constitute 
the core of the subject matter of instruc- 
tion in the elementary and the high 
schools. 

(5) Shall promote the physical well-being 
of pupils. 

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Bebelopment of Jlatumal 3foeate 

(6) Shall use methods of discipline which 
will foster initiative and spontaneity 
coupled with courtesy, self-restraint, and 
prompt obedience. 

(7) Shall make the utmost possible effort 
so to interest pupils in their own schooling 
that dropping out and juvenile delin- 
quency will be reduced to a minimum. 

Let me indicate briefly some of the pro- 
lems which are of pressing importance, 
leaving to your own discretion their 
further elaboration. 

If we are to maintain our school organ- 
ization at its high level of efficiency, we 
need an adequate supply of teachers. 
Therefore, I urge all teachers to remain 
in the service and to do their best to induce 
competent people to become candidates 
for admission to the service. Our pre- 
sent staff has been depleted to such an 
extent that it has been found necessary 
to request the government to designate 



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Bebelopment of i^tattonal 3toeal£ 

our work as an essential industry and to 
grant deferred classification to such mem- 
bers of our administrative, supervising, 
and teaching staff as are necessary to 
insure the proper maintenance of the 
schools. In connection with teachers' 
applications for leave, either with or with- 
out pay, it will probably be necessary to 
insist that not only the immediate superior 
give approval, but that the commanding 
officer in the branch of service for entrance 
into which the candidate is making appli- 
cation shall certify not only that the ser- 
vices to be rendered are essential, but also 
that the applicant is peculiarly well 
qualified to render such service. 

It is my settled conviction that the 
teaching service must be made more 
attractive in terms of increased compen- 
sation and more helpful and more sym- 
pathetic supervision. You can help by 
devising an organized channel of expres- 



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©ebelopment of Journal 3foeate 

sion, whether it be the present Teachers' 
Council or a modified form of such organ- 
ization, which will permit the teachers 
to voice suggestions, opinions, and requests 
with reference to the conduct of school 
work. 

Another problem of immediate impor- 
tance is the matter of adequately housing 
our 800,000 pupils. As you are aware, 
the Federal authorities, after giving due 
consideration to our requests for building 
materials, have denied the request in toto. 
We must acquiesce in this decision. As 
our present school accommodations are 
inadequate, the ingenuity of all will be 
taxed to devise means of providing pupils 
with a full day's schooling. I entreat 
your consideration and your cooperation 
in this matter. No plan of general appli- 
cation will be laid down, but the well 
recognized evils of certain types of double 
session or duplicate school programs 



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Bebelopment of Journal 3foeate 

should be avoided. Constructive sug- 
gestions, such as the modification of the 
school year program, the extension of the 
school day, the school week, and the 
school year, the expansion of the oppor- 
tunity classes in our summer schools, 
the development of more flexible grading 
schemes in our higher grades, the possi- 
bility of promotion by subjects, the ex- 
tension of the intermediate type of school, 
may enable us to make the best of a 
regrettable situation. 

Americanization, both as a term and 
as a process, is very familiar to you, and 
therefore, in view of its present impor- 
tance, let me simply warn you against 
the assumption that the bulk of American- 
ization work must be done through such 
agencies as evening schools, continuation 
classes, lecture centers, parents' associa- 
tions, or community centers. Effective 
as these agencies are, it is the beneficent 



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multiple influence of the day school 
teacher, exerted throughout the day to 
furnish ideas and habits to our pupils, 
that insures the transformation of the 
alien home and foreign neighborhood. 
Do all you can to promote the success 
of this Americanization work among 
adults, but do not forget that the children 
in your schools are the treasure bearers 
to the foreign home of that language 
equipment, that generous enthusiasm for 
institutional life, and these habits of 
orderly living which constitute the essence 
of American ideals. 

Were my message to you one of detail, 
I would emphasize the necessity of econ- 
omy of all kinds, whether it be in the use 
of supplies, the maintenance of equip- 
ment, or the honest execution of the daily 
program. I would expand upon the 
necessity of close attention to matters 
of methodology, such as the need of 



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Bebelopment of J&ational 3toeals 

self checking in arithmetic, the desira- 
bility of insuring to every child a fairly 
rapid, legible style of penmanship and a 
mastery of the minimum spelling vocabu- 
lary proved to be the basis of ordinary 
business and social correspondence, the 
distinction to be observed in the reading 
process between oral rendition and thought 
getting, the development of clear-cut 
speech through ample exercise in the 
class room, and the necessity of treating 
history and geography as closely related 
subjects significant in our present day 
life. But I shall refrain from treating 
these matters, because I am confident 
that in the near future it will be possible, 
through the cooperation of the superin- 
tendents, principals, and other super- 
visors to assure to the teachers a more 
helpful supervision than has been pos- 
sible hitherto, and that, therefore, such 
matters will receive the attention their 



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Bebelopment of J&att'onal 3toeate 

importance demands. 

Let me conclude by again referring to 
the war in which we are all engaged, 
whether we stand in the presence of a 
class in the heart of the ghetto or lie steel- 
helmeted in the fields of Flanders. To 
put forth our best efforts as teachers we 
must identify ourselves with the attempt 
of our Allies to preserve those rights of 
manhood, for the establishment of which 
our own nation was founded, and in the 
defense of which it is now pouring forth 
its richest treasure. These rights have 
been and still are in fearful jeopardy. 
Were we not a firmly united people, each 
and every one resolved to give his labor, 
his wealth, and even his life to guarantee 
these rights to posterity, the issue would 
be in doubt, but united as we are in every 
aspiration and endeavor, the battlefront 
extends not only to New York City, but 
to every village throughout the land. 



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Bebelopment of Rational Htoeate 

Last July, while attending the conven- 
tion of the National Education Associa- 
tion in Pittsburg, I sat gazing out of the 
hotel window in the dusk of the evening. 
The clouds were lowering, the atmosphere 
was smoke-laden, and in the distance a 
foundry running a heat was sending a 
shower of dazzling sparks into the dark- 
ness of the night. Across the way, on a 
neighboring building, I caught a glimpse 
of the "Stars and Stripes. " Like a flash, 
the gloom of the scene vanished, and I 
followed, as in a vision, that steel to the 
battle riven western front. Those sable 
clouds were transformed into the garment 
of a bereaved but triumphant democracy, 
and those fiery sparks were a golden 
crown unto her head. I proceeded to a 
meeting at which various representatives 
of our Allies spoke of the war in relation 
to education, and listened spell-bound to 
a beautiful story which, to my mind, is 



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Bebelopment of J&attonal Sbeala 

prophetic of the part we play in this war 
for democracy. It was related that 
France has shown her confidence in our 
army by giving into its keeping her most 
treasured possession — Alsace and Lor- 
raine; that some of our boys were billeted 
near the home of Joan of Arc; that they 
were told the story of how Joan had been 
inspired by heavenly voices. Incredu- 
lous, they halted a poilu going by, and 
inquired if such voices were still heard in 
the land and would lead to the salvation 
of France. The Frenchman halted, and 
then said, " Messieurs, listen." In the 
distance they heard faintly but clearly 
the silver-throated bugle of the American 
forces sounding the call to battle and 
to victory. 

Cordially yours, 

William L. Ettinger. 
Superintendent of Schools 



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